


Puppy Love

by VelvetSky



Series: Through the Years [6]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy is slightly stressed out, F/M, Fluff, Puppies, but they love each other so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 12:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17224445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VelvetSky/pseuds/VelvetSky
Summary: Steve comes back from a mission with a surprise for the kids. Darcy is a little unsure, but Steve will do everything he can to make it all good.





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Joey99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joey99/gifts).



> This was a 'bonus' request. A few months after the 6 year Blogversary I hit 200 followers on tumblr and asked if there was a special request. So this is for @pegasusdragontiger/Joey99 who requested "A Steve and Darcy fic with fluff and babies and puppies!" I hope you like it. :) I feel like it wasn't fluffy enough. Darcy went and got a little emotional on me. But I hope it's still fluffy and you still like it. 
> 
> Unbetaed, all messes are my own.

The summer in the Hamptons had done everyone good, it had also brought a few new additions to the Avengers family. Tony and Pepper announced their second child on Labor Day when the crew was getting ready to head back to the compound soon. They had known for over a month but wanted to wait for the right time, though a few people suspected as Pepper had started declining wine at the group gatherings after the 4th of July. Their second son, Morgan James Stark, was born at the end of March. Thor and Jane announced a baby on the way early on in the trip when Darcy noticed her usually skinny friend looking a little round in the belly and nowhere else. They had a daughter, Freya, born at the beginning of the new year. And soon after returning home to the compound late in September, Darcy was taking a pregnancy test of her own.

The year had been a mellow one for the team professionally, with more people on the team than ever, it meant Steve didn't always have to take the small calls. Sometimes it was more geared to someone else's skills anyway, though he usually did a lot of check-ins over the phone and long nights monitoring the situation from the office at the Compound if he wasn't out in the field. Darcy expected no less from him. Most of the recent missions he went out on seemed to go quickly and smoothly.

In early May, Darcy gave birth to not one, but two, babies. When they had found out they were having twins Darcy almost panicked. Steve had kept his cool, but she could tell he had a few seconds of shock and panic also. But after a breath, he smiled and assured her they could do it. At least they did have a whole village to help raise their kids. Sarah and little James were excited about the new siblings, though they also wondered what it meant for their chances at getting a puppy. The kids had begun expressing an interest in having a pet, and before Darcy got pregnant she and Steve had started warming up to the idea. With James turning three, it sounded like a good time for a pet. Another baby though, it made Steve and Darcy have to discuss the matter again.

The twins, Max and Ruby, were about two months old and Steve had gotten called out on a mission. It was a hectic couple of days alone with four kids for Darcy. Jane had come over a lot to help, but she, of course, had her own little one. When Steve called that morning to say they were cleaning up and heading home, she was very relieved. Normally she would have been waiting out on the landing pad outside the hanger, but with two newborns, it was a bit too much to manage. It felt strange though, for Darcy, she didn't like the break from the routine she'd always had when Steve returned.

It left her pacing their apartment at the compound. It was mid-afternoon and she'd made dinner already, it was hanging out in the fridge until dinnertime, the twins were napping, while Sarah and James played. It left her little to do other than wait. She'd played with each kid, but they seemed content with their own things at the moment. When the door opened, she nearly jumped up.

"Steve!" Darcy practically flung herself onto him.

Steve chuckled, catching her with ease and spinning her around once. "I missed you so much. All of you."

"We missed you too." Darcy smiled as Sarah and James jumped and grabbed at Steve more or less chanting 'Dada'.

Steve released Darcy so he could scoop up the kids. "How are you, kids? Were you good for your Mama?"

"They were very good." Darcy nodded, smiling as Sarah kissed Steve's cheek and wrapped her arms around his neck. James was practically standing on the waist of Steve's pants and holding onto his head. He was almost too big to do that anymore.

"Good enough they deserve a little reward?" One eyebrow went up in question as Steve looked at Darcy. They hadn't agreed it was time yet for a pet, but an opportunity had presented itself on his mission.

Darcy knew her husband well, and that look absolutely had something up its sleeve. When she spoke, it was slow and cautious, but she trusted Steve not to get them in over their heads with anything. For example, she knew he wouldn't bring home a trunk full of candy or something. "Yes, I'd say so."

"A reward?" Sarah looked hopeful and excited, bouncing on her father's arm.

Steve found being super strong came in handy as a dad. He loved that his kids could climb all over him and he could take it, easily. He smiled at his daughter's expression. "A reward. Now, your mom and I will have to discuss and decide just what we can manage, but anything we can't, Uncle Bucky and Uncle Sam said they'd take on."

Darcy liked seeing her kids happy, and she trusted Steve, but she was a little concerned at just what this surprise reward was if there was already a fall back plan involving Sam and Bucky.

"What is it, Dada?" Sarah was wide-eyed and clasped her hands together when Steve put her and James down. Little James seemed to look between his parents and sister trying to figure out just what was coming, while feeling the excitement in the air.

"Stand right where you are." Steve took the few steps back to the door and poked his head out into the hall before opening the door a little more and four puppies came bounding into the apartment. They were lab puppies, in four different colors.

"Oh my god! Yes!" Sarah dropped down to her knees to receive the puppies who seemed to go right for Sarah and James.

"Puppies!" James shouted and laughed as one puppy bounced and licked his hand.

"Steve? This is a lot of puppies." They had talked about a dog prior to her getting pregnant again, not four.

Steve nudged Darcy back a few steps and spoke softly. "Sam and Bucky will take in any puppies we can't handle, which includes all of them if that's what we decide. So the kids can still kind of have the puppies and help with the puppies, without us having to assume all responsibility for the puppies, or having them running around with newborns in the house. If you don't feel like we can handle having any of them in the house all the time, then the kids can just visit the puppies at Sam's or Bucky's."

"Yeah, and I can be the bad guy saying no to puppies." Darcy frowned, the puppies were cute, she didn't want to say no, but it also seemed overwhelming just getting used to four children.

"I'll say no then. It's our decision, I'm just willing to go with whatever you feel comfortable with. And it's not like they don't get to hang out with the puppies. I promise you will not be made the bad guy in this." Steve was standing wide and bending his knees to get down closer to Darcy's level, his hands on her hips. His voice low and soft.

"Sam and Bucky are really going to take in all the dogs?" She wondered a little bit even if Sam and Bucky took the dogs, what would happen when the next mission came around. Because she was the one feeding Bucky's two cats and scooping their litter the last few days. But that was easy compared to dogs, who had to go out to potty, and needed walks and more socializing to be happy. Tending the cats took maybe fifteen minutes, sometimes she stayed a little longer to let the kids play with the cats, which the cats seemed to enjoy too. And she could sit down and nurse if she needed to.

"Sam's been talking about a dog as long as we have. And Bucky said he wouldn't mind adding a dog to the cats he has. I talked about it with both of them." It was one of those conversations that had gotten Sarah's attention over a year ago. Sam had been musing about wanting to get a dog and Sarah got all excited at the idea and asked if they could get a dog too.

"Where did the puppies come from anyway?" The team had been on a mission to help take down a hostile and violent insurrection in a small country by a group of extremist insurgents using some very sketchy tech that was likely alien in origin. Darcy wasn't sure where they came across puppies in the middle of that.

"The community we were in for the mission, there was a family, three dogs, two of them had puppies around the same time. They couldn't keep all the puppies. Clint brought one home too and so did Wanda." There had been about a dozen puppies, the family was only keeping two of them, and had friends or neighbors willing to take a few of the others, but it left them with six puppies that they didn't know what to do with.

"What about the next mission? Am I taking care of four kids, two cats, and four dogs?" The puppies were crazy cute, Darcy didn't want to say no, but she also knew they would be a lot of work, especially while they were puppies and needed training. She wasn't really sure how she could handle that if the guys had to run out on another mission in a few weeks and she was suddenly babysitting four puppies along with trying to keep her kids in check.

Steve paused, he genuinely hadn't thought about the next mission. It could be months before they'd all be called out for something, but it could also be a few days from then. Either way, that would be a lot. "I'm sure there's enough people in our village to help out with dog care."

"It seems so in theory, but this was a lot of work with the twins now. I no longer have at least one hand for each kid. And Jane has a kid of her own to mind now. As you probably noticed, I didn't make it out to the tarmac to greet you. I didn't really like that, but it was too tough to wrangle the twins into the stroller without one of them crying." In the past, she usually could count on Jane to help her pick up some of the slack, to come over a couple of nights and help with the kids when the guys were running a mission.

"Maybe Erik would be willing to help too? And I'm sure Sam and Bucky can sort something out so you don't have to deal with the pets. Sarah's getting big enough she could even be a help with the animals and with the littler kids. I know four puppies racing in looks overwhelming, but we will sort it out and have a plan in place before the next mission. And Sam and Bucky will take them in. I did notice you weren't on the tarmac, and I missed you, but I understand." Steve could see the strain in her eyes. "Maybe we can even arrange until the kids and the dogs are a little bigger, that at least one of us doesn't go on a mission. I'll even try to make that person me more times than not. But if I have to go, then maybe I can leave Bucky or Sam here to help you."

Darcy shook her head, her eyes growing a little teary. "I knew what I signed up for. At least with you and the kids. It is just overwhelming right now. I'm sure it'll be better with the kids in a few months, but dogs too just seems so much right now. They are so cute. I wanted to get a dog too, before the twins. Maybe I just need to sleep on it a little bit."

Steve wrapped his arms around Darcy and felt her sink into his body and sigh. It made him sigh a little too. He didn't want her to feel so stressed or overwhelmed. Thus far into their relationship, which had spanned twelve years, seven of those married, plus four kids, Darcy had never once asked him not to take a mission. Whenever there was a call and he went to answer it, she simply had told him she loved him and to be careful out there. He'd sometimes in recent years stepped back, taken more of an advisory role on smaller missions that were sometimes more geared toward other people's talents anyway, but he hadn't really stepped back that far. If he was honest with himself, he was still jumping in as far as he could most of the time. Maybe it was something he needed to consider, especially if the mission wasn't a huge one. If it was something he expected Sam and Bucky or others could handle without his aid, then maybe he needed to let them do that. "We'll figure it out so that you aren't stressed by any of it. I don't want you overwhelmed."

He saw Sam and Bucky poking their heads in, as Sarah and James' giggles were probably drifting into the hallway. Steve just nodded a little at the kids and puppies and the guys came in and sat down with them. Steve tried to shift so he could guide Darcy back to their room but she just pressed her fingers into his back. So, Steve shifted his arms to lift her and carried her down the hall to their bedroom and closed the door.

"Wait, the kids, the dogs?" Darcy started to move, when he set her down and tried to pull back, she seemed to realize they'd left the living room.

"Sam and Bucky are in there keeping an eye on the kids and the puppies. I thought we could use a few quiet moments." Steve brushed his fingers softly at her hair.

"I'm sorry. I don't want to make this all dramatic. The kids really want a dog and now there's a bunch of them. I'm just stressed right now." Darcy shook her head again, her hands still hanging softly from Steve's sides.

"I'm sorry I didn't alert you before I just brought the puppies in. I didn't stop and think about how much you end up doing when I'm away. But, I will sort this out. Sam and Bucky will take the puppies, so the kids still basically get to have dogs, but we don't have the responsibility but the kids can still be expected to help out. And I'll still see about reassessing missions, as well as having a backup plan for who cares for the dogs in the instance that everyone has to be out on a mission." He really hadn't stopped to consider how much work the extra babies were. Before the twins, even when Darcy was pregnant with them, he'd come home to find her waiting on the tarmac with the kids, unless he arrived in the middle of the night. Sometimes she looked tired, but she was always happy he was home and seemed to make sure he knew everything was good at home. She never appeared so stressed, at least not by what she was dealing with at home. And her stress about him being gone seemed to wash away when she got to hold him. Steve felt like kicking himself for not thinking more about how much more work four kids might be than two when Darcy was left to handle them on her own.

"No, this is your world, I know that. I don't want you having to sacrifice that, it's part of you. You can't turn your back on that, I know you can't, and I don't want you to have to. I just need to process this all. Maybe we can manage one of the dogs. It would be good if I don't have to handle them all though on missions, at least not until the twins are older." Darcy of course wouldn't have minded if there were less missions simply because there wasn't need and thus, she got her husband home more often. But it wasn't like he was gone all the time, there were lots of times where he was home for months at a time. And she knew how Steve worked, he couldn't turn a blind eye to something going awry, and she didn't want him trying to. She loved him for who he was, and that sense of duty to righting the wrongs in the world that others couldn't was part of who he was.

"I can't turn my back on my family either. I can't go out there on a mission that someone else can handle, knowing it's putting undue stress on you. You are the reason my life is more than just fighting battle after battle. I need you and I love you. And the idea of you being as stressed as you look right now because of all these missions, that makes me ache. You do so much to help me and make me happy. But that's a two-way street, you need to be happy too, and anything I can do to help that, I want to do, I need to do. I won't feel right if I don't." Steve was holding onto her tight, feeling her breathing a little softer, and her body feeling a little less tense. His eyelids fluttered when she nuzzled his jaw.

"I appreciate that you're concerned." She didn't want him worrying about her and the home when he had a mission, he had enough to be worrying about. But just feeling he really would make that kind of effort for her, it made her feel better and made her feel like she could manage whatever.

Steve knew Darcy was the sort to keep helping others without a lot of regard for herself, as long as it wasn't life threatening, she'd keep at it. And even then, as much as she liked to say she wasn't risking her life for something mundane, she absolutely would risk it for important things. She was as loyal and tenacious as he was. It was just that he often dealt in large-scale helping of many at once, while she mostly dealt in helping on an individual level. She still worked at The Compound, helping coordinate things and making sure he and all the others had what they needed to be ready for the next mission. She was one of the behind the scenes, unsung heroes, not just to him or because she was his wife, but to the whole crew of superheroes because she was there for everyone in a thousand different ways. Steve knew she was capable of a great deal, but all the more reason she shouldn't be taken for granted. He was going to make sure she had support too, even if he had to arrange it quietly so she didn't fight him on it.

Darcy had a feeling this wasn't the end of the matter, but at the moment she just wanted to hang onto Steve for as long a moment as she could. Quiet moments were rare. She could make sure Steve didn't go trying to cut out missions he felt drawn to. She didn't want him trying to force himself to back away from what she knew he couldn't ignore if he tried.

Sure enough, after a few minutes holding each other in the calm of their bedroom, they heard one, then the other, of the twins cry. Darcy pulled back, giving Steve a kiss on the cheek before heading for the nursery. Steve tried to hold onto her for as long as he could. Perhaps he needed that quiet moment alone with her just as much or maybe more than she did. Once she'd pulled from his reach he followed on her heels to help and was hit again with just how hectic the last couple months had been. It usually did take at least the two of them to manage both babies and both children. And even with Bucky and Sam over to help, it could be crazy in moments with a three-year-old and a six-year-old on top of two infants.

Steve would have to reassess their situation and just what he could really take on mission-wise. There were some missions he knew he'd have to take on, but there had been several in the past year, or so, that he could think of that were clearly things he didn't need to be there for. Sam and Nat and a couple others could have easily managed it in the same amount of time with the same results. Darcy had never asked him not to go, or even complained or hinted at struggling this way when he was gone, so he'd never thought twice about just jumping on a mid-grade mission and getting it done. His family was more than a mission though, they were at his very soul. When he picked up his baby daughter and looked into her little eyes it sealed the deal, he had to at least make some adjustments.


End file.
